Home Decorating : Introduction

Introduction to Home Decorating.

Nothing Is More Natural than the desire to live in tasteful and gracious surroundings. Whether home is a house, fiat or a bed-sitting room, the first need is to make it comfortable and appealing.

Tasteful surroundings promote family satisfaction and contentment; children reared in these surroundings will in turn be influenced to create beautiful home of their own. Decorating our houses enriches our lives so that home seems more desirable than the world outside.

Most women want to know how to develop or exploit their inherent good taste. Many recognise that they decorate their homes with little more than enthusiasm to guide them; others, lack the confidence to carry out their own ideas. Good taste, when it comes to expressing it, is not always instinctive, but almost everyone has the ability to recognise it when they see it.

Decorating is exhilarating and it need not be expensive; inevitably it must be geared to one's means. But good taste rather than a rich budget more often produces the best decoration.

Getting started on home furnishing is not always easy, but one way to approach it is to select a definite theme for the whole house. A small house will benefit from the continuity of an idea; for example, a provincial, colonial, contemporary or a traditional period of furnishing and decorating.

Seeing, within these pages, what other Australians have achieved in decorating should be the greatest inspiration of all.

The way you like to live should supply the starting point in decorating. Order .and serenity may be the qualities which have first importance. A home which expresses dignity and reserve may be conservative, but it is also impressive. For those people who prefer to live formally, quiet colors, traditional furniture and rich muted fabrics will make for them, a positive personal statement.

The informal way of living is a strong characteristic of today. Long summers, love of the outdoors, tend to make a casual pattern of living for the majority. Those families who prefer the friendly hospitality of an open house, who eat as often outdoors as indoors, will be attracted to warm, bright colors and furnishings which are sturdy and care-free.

The uncompromisingly modem home personifies the spirit of this machine age. The out-and-out modernist will decorate with restraint with the important emphasis on texture, line, woods, sculpture and crafted accessories.

Somewhere between the formal, informal, and modem way of decorating lie the preferences of those homemakers who like to experiment. They are bound by no decorating code but would prefer, rather, a freedom of style - perhaps a bedroom which is Louis XV, an Early American living room, and a strictly twentieth century kitchen.

Finding the theme which suits you and your family should not be difficult; the help of professional, practical, and proved ways to beautify your home, will make it a thrilling, great adventure.